Im looking to get a wireless lan and a want a very good security system installed so that nobody except authorized users are able to use the LAN. However in my quest for information I seem to have delved in to the world of coperate IT. Any time I click a link on google I end up at company website catering to large networks/companies with no price guide at all. I was hoping if anybody here could suggest a viable solution to a 5 person LAN at a cost of 400 initial and 10-30 per additional person beyond the first. Currently im looking at getting some sort of SmartCard Wireless Router that will only allow connections from authorized smartcards.
If anybody could point in the direction of a company that will cater to a individual and that has price listing or you aproximatly know the price of the said product. As of right now I have no clue the cost of this. I may be out of my leauge with an initial startup into the thousands, but i cant find a price!
Most SoHo wireless routers/access points will let you restrict access based on MAC address (a unique number assigned to each network card). You can also force encryption on most of these devices (think WEP).
I must admit, I’m not very strong on wireless (yet another on the list of things I’m updating my knowledge on), but this should satisfy your requirements.
It all depends on how good a security system you want. Based on experience, people often go for ridiculously easy (or non-existant) security systems or incredibly paranoid, over protective ones. Generally, security should be based on an effort system, how much effort must the attacker spend before my system is no longer worth his time.
If all your doing is restricting people from leeching off your internet, a simple turning off of broadcasting SSID’s and filtering by MAC is enough. There are plenty of more fertile picking grounds.
If your afraid somebody has a reson to go after your network in particular then here are the steps I reccomend:
Turn off broadcast SSID
Change SSID name to something obscure with lots of esoteric charecters
Turn WEP on
change WEP password to something obscure
Turn off DHCP
Manually set all IP’s to a non-standard range
Change your sub-net
Put up a firewall
Log everything.
Unless the NSA or a MNC is going after your network, you should be secure enough.